Buried in jail, like fellow gunmen

His nine other Pakistani accomplices in 26/11 had also been secretly buried at an undisclosed location outside Mumbai in January 2010. Maharashtra home minister R.R. Patil had made the disclosure three months later in April during a House discussion about the expenses on Kasab.

Police sources revealed later that the bodies, preserved at Mumbai’s JJ Hospital since the November 2008 strike, were ferried to Taloja jail in Thane and buried there. The government, though, never officially revealed the location.

The burials, which took place as the 26/11 trial was continuing, came after several Muslim organisations said the terrorists shouldn’t be interred in India.

The Jama Masjid trust, which runs Bada Kabrastan, one of Mumbai’s largest graveyards, had refused space saying the gunmen were not “true followers of Islam”. Pakistan had refused to acknowledge them as its nationals.

Home minister Patil said the decision for burials was taken after it was clear that the bodies would not be required as prosecution evidence. He also revealed that 30 police officers were involved in the “mission”. The power meters in the morgue of JJ Hospital were not switched off and the posse of policemen guarding the bodies was not removed even after the burials to ensure news of the last rites didn’t leak out.